A View From the Right
To the editor:
Those on the far left speak endlessly about diversity. Ironically, those are often the same people shutting down or censoring those with opposing views. I am disappointed that there is no diversity of viewpoints at the Independent. Maybe I was naive expecting a newspaper based in Provincetown to offer views from the right.
The clincher for me was the editor’s letter, “Time for Corrections,” in the Jan. 14 edition. He wrote, “Can we reconcile ourselves to the fact that 2,144 citizens of Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown voted for Trump on Nov. 3?” Are you kidding me?
You seem to think all Trump voters supported the attack on the Capitol. And, by the way, why wasn’t that referred to as a “mostly peaceful protest”? Did you have similar reactions when Black Lives Matter and Antifa mobs burned down neighborhoods? Fox News reported that those riots could be the most costly in U.S. history, with up to $3 billion in damage, including burning innocent people’s businesses and a police station. Two dozen people died in those riots last summer.
I wasn’t a subscriber last summer, but I’ll go out on a limb and say you reacted like the rest of the far left and either ignored the violence or tried justifying it because it was for a “good cause.” Or maybe you didn’t justify it, but simply stated you understood where they were coming from. I heard this a lot from the far left, as well as “rioters are the voices of the unheard.”
The hypocrisy from the far left is disgusting. It is very unlikely that I will renew my subscription.
Dave Marro
Troy, N.Y.
Good Old Boys and Girls
To the editor:
Your story about Rep. Sarah Peake and transparency at the Mass. State House is important [Jan. 28, front page]. I attended that Zoom meeting with Rep. Peake.
When the Act on Mass folks told me that Peake didn’t support our three proposed rules to promote transparency, I assumed there had been a misunderstanding. I’d campaigned for her over the years, proud to have a strong woman Democrat represent me.
In addition to opposing the three rules, Peake was curt. Why would a confident and competent woman act this way? It prompted me to do more research.
Did you know that the Center for Public Integrity gave Mass. a “D+” in transparency and an “F” in public access to information? Did you know that the state legislature is exempt from its own Open Meeting Law? Type “Massachusetts” and “transparency” into a browser. The reality is bleak. Last November, 16 Mass. districts voted on a ballot question asking if legislative committee votes should be public. Ninety percent said yes.
The good-old-boy network at the State House must be dismantled. Bills with broad public support — the Safe Communities Act, comprehensive climate crisis legislation, same-day voter registration, progressive taxation — have languished there for years.
I was disheartened to hear Peake explain her opposition to our transparency reforms. She said that she’d inform her colleagues of our concerns. She has served as our representative for 13 years. At the start of the most recent session she was assigned to three committees. Congratulations are in order. Now we need to convince her that these three rule changes are just the first steps toward true representative government.
Diane LeDuc
Harwich
Extinguished Dreams
To the editor:
I agree with Jay Coburn and Hadley Luddy on the need to create more affordable rental housing on the Lower Cape [“Use Rooms Tax Dollars for Housing,” Jan. 28, page 3]. But throwing more money at this dire problem may not be a realistic solution on its own.
We need land for housing to go on, and infrastructure that can support development. Towns have very little acreage left to use for housing. Maybe it’s time for the Cape Cod National Seashore to consider allowing towns to access land within the Seashore for creating housing. Here in Wellfleet, we have town-owned land in the Seashore (the so-called landing strip), but we do not own the access road to it.
The disheartening scrutiny of the Cloverleaf project in Truro speaks to the continuing education that needs to be done on the subject of affordable housing. We need to change the negative perceptions of it. Without rental housing that’s affordable we will not have diversity and sustainability in our communities.
It’s obvious that local demographics have changed in the past nine months with Covid. There has been an unprecedented real estate boom, completely extinguishing the younger generation’s dreams of owning a house here. What will our post-Covid community look like?
Kathleen Bacon
Wellfleet
